How will you
order your life this year? Will you be driven by the tyranny of the urgent…or
live “ordered” according to your life’s values and that which is truly important? The urgent vs. important is a constant battle
isn’t it? An ordered life, lived according to the important things, means
saying “no” to many good things. It means taking control of your time, turning
off the TV, taking time for quietness, prayer and people that you love.
We’re daily
bombarded by hundreds and hundreds of ads and messages all trying to shape us
and conform us into what THEY want us to be. In some grocery stores, TV show names are
now being stamped on eggs! Imagine opening a carton of eggs and getting the CBS
TV line up for that night! Insane. Bus stop billboards can now emit odors,
enticing you to buy those chocolate chip cookies pictured in the ad. Double
insanity. You can’t pump gas now without having a little TV screen there
pushing the latest “whatever” on you.
It’s my goal
to turn down the “noise” this year. Yes, I have athletic dreams and goals for
this year. I love racing! But I want to spend more time with my adult kids, my
wife, my parents and help my 88 yr. old mother-in-law as much as possible as
her health fails. I want to read more and try to be an encouragement to as many
people as possible in 2014.
Yes, go
train, race, have a blast and enjoy your health. But remember the really high
value objectives in life - God and people. I know as I lay on my death-bed
someday (way down the road – I want to live to be 100), my loved-ones and close
friends won’t care what my Ironman time was, 5K time or best Olympic distance
tri time was. They’ll care…that I cared about them. Press on, caring for people!